Civics lesson
During the ground-breaking ceremony for the new high school in Grand Terrace, a couple of the dignitaries proclaimed "today we are seeing democracy in action!"
These gentlemen must have missed a few civics lessons.
Webster's dictionary defines democracy as "government by the people; rule of the majority." The fact is, 124 people called and requested that the school be named "Grand Terrace High School" and only 17 voted for "Ray Abril Jr. High School."
Seems pretty cut-and-dry to me. The majority rules, Grand Terrace High it is!
Perhaps the Colton Joint Unified School District board needs some remedial classes in basic math!
HANNI BENNETT
Loma Linda
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
That is why we need to show up in mass at Thursday's Board meeting. Let them know what you want the name to be. They didn't listen the 1st time, lets make them listen now! Bring everyone, write your local government leaders, the board members themselves and media!
Amanda Betten
Woo the the Hoo Hanni!
Loved it!
There is a certain level of irony in this post. Either the author of this letter doesn't know how many nominations were submitted for the name of the high school or doesn't know the definition of majority. According to the March 13th article in the San Bernardino Sun "Grand Terrace High" got 124 out of 365 nominations total. That's ~34% of the total, far short of a majority which by definition requires more than 50%.
Anybody that claims that states that it's "cut and dry" based on a plurality of ~34% comes across as being arrogant. If the goal was to have a democratic process the logical follow up to the process would have been to have a runoff with the top 3(Grand Terrace, Robert Degroff, and Blue Mountain).
By posting poorly written pieces like this you guys are just shooting yourselves in the foot.
Good luck at this week's school board meeting but I think the chances of the current tactics of the "Grand Terrace High" proponents succeeding in convincing at least two of the board members of changing there minds isn't great. Prohibiting a miracle in the next few weeks I think the only way that you are going to accomplish anything is to have the current majority removed from office either via recall or by winning seats at the next regularly scheduled election.
Way to be positive and upbeat KAugsburger!
You just keep spreading that sunshine all over the place!
What Hanni Bennett was just saying is that More votes were for GTHS than any other name.
Peace, love and tiny flowers!
Oh, and Augsburger...
in your poorly written sentence "two of the board members of changing there minds..."
The spelling of "there" should have been "their" showing ownership.
Since you don't like poorly written posts and all.
HANNI HAD THE RIGHT IDEA, I'M SURE SHE MEANT PLURALITY WHICH IS THE SAME WAY MANY OF THE BOARD MEMBERS WON THEIR SEATS(CHECK OUT THE PAST ELECTIONS)THE THREE SPEAKERS THAT USED THE ERRONEOUS PHRASE "DEMOCRACY IN ACTION" SHOULD HAVE LOOKED UP THE WORD "OLIGARCHY" AND SUBSTITUTED IT. DEFINITION AS PER MR WEBSTER."A GOVERNMENT IN WHICH THE POWER IS IN THE HANDS OF A FEW PERSONS" GOOD JOB HANNI
I think that KAugsburger's still is making a good point. It is hypocritical to call the school board in need of remedial education when the author of the post obviously needs the same.
Good organizations are willing to admit that they make mistakes and making clearly erroneous statements detracts from the argument.
Making up stuff really looks bad and brings into question everything else one is saying. Whether fair or not once you say one thing that is clearly wrong everything else you say is often discounted. The moral of the story:
Do NOT say that Grand Terrace was the pick of the majority. It is not only wrong, but people begin to characterize anything else you say as a lie as well ultimately undercutting your ability to influence people completely.
Ok so we have established that Grand Terrace High School did not receive at least 50 percent or more of the votes. We can honestly say that it recieved the most votes, is that better? I have a question, where are the supporters of the name Ray Abril High School? They have every right to attend board meetings, start blogs, gather petitions and make tshirts. Why haven't they come out in masses to support the boards decision? I belive its because no one thinks its a good idea! Tomorrow the board is finally addressing this issue and hopefully starting to fix this mistake and move us forward.
Post a Comment